by Tinalynge
Having walked through the village while reminiscing about what had transpired the previous year, Hui Yue finally arrived at the village elder’s house where he knocked on the door.
“Anyone home?” he asked, only to find that the door opened slowly and revealed an entourage of seven back cloaked men.
Hui Yue froze. Not moving a muscle, he felt how Lan Feng completely concealed himself within his dantian. Having gained the extra few stars of Disciple rank had not done much for Lan Feng’s disguise, yet the drops of spiritual power which he had gained from the Divine Flower now allowed for Lan Feng to completely conceal himself.
As soon as the door opened, the seven experts all slowly turned around, facing towards Hui Yue, yet the young boy was unable to feel whether or not these experts were examining him. Their cloaks were covering their entire bodies, and the inscriptions which Hui Yue remembered all too well were currently only seen as embroideries on the black cloaks.
Within the room was also two guards from the City Lord’s mansion and the village elder. All of which now stared at the young boy who seemed to have walked in on them.
“Excuse me,” Hui Yue said apologetically while giving a slight bow to the ones present and tried to close the door in front of him.
“WAIT!” one of the guards shouted out, causing the white-haired boy to release a big sigh of despair. Clearly things were not supposed to go his way today.
Straightening up, Hui Yue looked quizzically at the guard who had yelled wait just moments before. “Does your lordship need anything from me?” He asked with a honeyed voice and big eyes like those of a deer. The perfect expression of a naïve and incredibly harmless child.
Looking at this child the guards had a hard time understanding how he could be the famous Hui Yue, a disciple of ‘Li Fen’.
These guards lived in the barracks at the City Lord’s mansion, and they were aware that the black cloaked men had been searching for something during the last half of the year, yet no one knew what they were looking for.
These black cloaked men had shown no interest in anything, nor anyone so far and no one had heard them speak even once, yet last night Lord Rong Liang had ordered these guards to bring them to the small village where his children were currently visiting with, of course, no explanation.
When they arrived here, no one had been present in the village itself, but slowly the villagers started to emerge from a field on the northern side. Together with these villagers was the village elder, and he instantly invited the men to his home as soon as they arrived.
These seven black cloaked men followed without asking questions. In fact, they had shown absolutely no signs of a reaction to anything that had happened, yet as soon as Hui Yue had opened the door all seven had moved their head in unison.
Hui Yue was standing still, eyeing the seven black cloaked men. With no warning the inscriptions on the seven cloaks lit up with a silvery light and an eerie silence enveloped Hui Yue as a silence which he had experienced before descended.
The silence which had enveloped Hui Yue brought along with it a black sphere that completely blinded his senses. Hui Yue could see nothing, nor could he hear or smell anything within this sphere still the feeling of being constantly scrutinized remained.
Had this been before Hui Yue got the Divine Flower, then Lan Feng would not have been capable of hiding himself as skilfully as he did now and thanks to this nothing was visible to the seven crusaders.
As soon as the feeling of being scrutinized appeared, Lan Feng gaped as he saw how the cave-ins containing the red mist and the blue cloud sealed themselves, allowing for nothing to enter it or be seen.
Hui Yue had no idea of how long the scanning went on; neither could he determine whether or not they managed to uncover the secrets which were hidden within his body. Ever so slowly, light started to appear from the distance, then it rapidly advanced and brought along with it the senses which Hui Yue previously had lost.
Looking around, Hui Yue saw that the cloaked men had vanished and along with them the City Lord’s guards were nowhere to be seen. He was currently laying down on a bed within the cottage belonging to the village elder, and Hui Yue looked around with a confused expression on his face.
In front of him all his friends were seated, worried expressions on their faces as they rushed towards the boy who had just opened his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Rong Xing asked, worry shining within her eyes as she grabbed Hui Yue’s hand and measured his pulse.
Not only was Rong Xing worried. Hui Yue saw worry in all of their faces, even Deng Wu who had been contacted by little dragon. A small hand signal showed Hui Yue that Deng Wu wished to speak with him in private afterwards.
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Hui Yue said with a slight smile on his face. It was good to be cared about like this, but his body did feel as though he had been given a beating. Sitting up straight, he asked his friends “what happened?” he asked because his memory was quite fuzzy.
“The village elder told us you collapsed.” Ma Kong quietly looked over at Hui Yue as if to convince himself that the younger child was actually fine. “Did you have any injuries from when you caught that Fanged Hog earlier?” he asked as he could not think of any other explanation for why he would have collapsed.
Hearing this question, Hui Yue went quiet for some time. It was obvious that the village elder had not mentioned the guests which were just visiting, and Hui Yue had no interest in telling them either. It was obvious that the only thing it would accomplish was to make them all worry.
“That must be it,” Hui Yue said with a sigh as he allowed his body to fall down onto the pillow once more and closed his eyes. An annoying headache was starting to form, and he was deeply worried about what the cloaked men had discovered that would cause them to run away this quickly.
Looking at Deng Wu, Hui Yue understood that the other boy knew something about these men, or more accurately, little dragon knew something about these men, which could be of great use to Hui Yue. Still he had to come up with a way to speak with Deng Wu alone rather than with everyone present, and he slowly rose up once more standing on unsteady legs as he made his way towards the door, pretending to head back to his tent to rest.
At first everyone present all offered to help him move, but Hui Yue insisted that he could move on his own. That was until he reached Deng Wu where he almost fell over his own legs and accidentally kicked Deng Wu over the thigh while falling down.
“Oh no!” Hui Yue exclaimed, the naïve boy act automatically appearing on his face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you. Maybe I really am unable to walk on my own.”
“Right.” Deng Wu said through gritted teeth as he pitied himself. His leg was hurting quite badly considering the kick came from a small boy, but regardless Deng Wu knew that this was the only option Hui Yue had for the two of them to be alone for a while.
“I am really sorry about this,” Hui Yue said with a sigh. He truly was sorry for this, but he had no other option to get the information he needed fast. Walking out, a thought suddenly hit Hui Yue, and he turned around looking at the four friends who still waited inside, all looking worried at him.
“I’m going to rest for another few days. During this time get as many Fanged Hogs as possible. We will need the beast cores.”
Hearing this, they all furrowed their brows. All of them agreed that Hui Yue needed to rest for some time, yet they could not see why Hui Yue would need the cores. Still, none of them questioned his words, instead the shrugged their shoulders and Rong Ming suddenly smiled.
“Let us have a tournament to see who can catch the most hogs!” He said, and before waiting for an answer, had already rushed out the door and overtaken Hui Yue, making his way to the outskirts where Hui Yue had been hunting that morning.
Gao Yan was quickly roused by the suggestion of Rong Ming and he quickly followed his best friend, rushing past Hui Yue and gave him a slap on the shoulder which caused the young boy to topple over, i
n turn causing Deng Wu to snicker. What comes around, goes around.
Staying back in the village elder’s house was Ma Kong and Rong Xing, both of them having doubt within their eyes.
“He was not wounded was he?” Ma Kong asked with a quiet voice as he looked at the door from where the others had escaped.
“No,” Rong Xing answered with a melodious voice. “Deng Wu seemed to know what it was about though.” She commented afterwards, her face showing a mix of expressions.
“He will tell us one day when he is ready to do so,” Ma Kong said with a sigh as he slowly started moving towards the outsides, intending to join the two others in the intense fanged hog hunt.
Standing behind in the house a hurt expression was evident on Rong Xing’s face as she mumbled. “Is Deng Wu really more trustworthy than I am?”
Chapter 56 - Crusaders
* * *
Chapter 56: Crusaders
Seated across from Deng Wu, Hui Yue looked at the older boy in his tent. In front of Deng Wu was an azure figurine, yet nothing was emitting from it. Little dragon was quiet, and his aura was completely hidden much like Lan Feng’s had been previously.
“Stop being such a scaredy-cat, you dumb lizard.” Lan Feng said through Hui Yue’s mouth as the phoenix took over the body. He had no intention of waiting forever for the other divine beast to start talking The taunting seemed to work as a low voice snapped, “You stupid birdbrain, what would you know!”
Finally, the aura which had been locked up was released, and the figurine slowly came to life as it frowned at the small white-haired boy.
“So,” Lan Feng asked, completely ignoring the previous statement, “who are those black cloaked men for you to be so scared?”
Throwing a long glance at Lan Feng, little dragon was quiet for a long time while he fidgeted with his scaled body.
“Those men are crusaders.” Little dragon was looking uncomfortable as he spoke. His head kept going back and forth as though he felt like someone was following him, yet nothing was there, only then did he seemed to relax ever so slightly. “Crusaders are known as his strongest force, but no one knows about their true power and for them to be here, something is amiss.”
Hearing this Hui Yue felt how Lan Feng was alarmed and in turn was quite worried as well.
“If he sent them, then we should have been dead by now, right?” Lan Feng said through clenched teeth, hostility emitting from his whole body.
“That is the weird thing.” Little dragon continued, looking genuinely confused. “These crusaders were of the lowest rank; they were definitely only Emperors so they should not be able to see you nor me. Why were they here?”
“I know.” Hui Yue said quietly, “I am quite sure they are looking for ‘Li Fen’.” Hearing this, everyone within the tent went silent and contemplated how this affects their future actions. It was obvious that none of them wished for others to know their secrets, yet these crusaders have already shown up appearing to know something.
“Although we can’t underestimate them, you were clearly not their target.” Little dragon finally sighed. “If you had been you would be dead right now. Either they did not notice the little phoenix, or they were not on a bird hunt.”
Hui Yue could only shiver as he thought of how close he had gotten to once again experiencing death. A sigh escaped him, and he stood up on wobbly legs and made his way out to the look for the others. Although he had wished to keep it a secret, he knew that everyone around him could be in danger. Bringing danger to his friends was something which Hui Yue did not wish to do.
Gao Yan and Rong Ming were discussing something about the two Fanged Hogs they were holding, and Hui Yue could not help but laugh when he heard that they were debating who had caught the biggest hog. Ma Kong and Rong Xing were completely ignoring the two of them and instead they sliced into the heads, obtaining the beast cores from another two beasts.
As everyone saw Hui Yue and Deng Wu arriving, they stopped their work and moved towards them. Worry was still evident on their faces and gratitude flooded Hui Yue’s heart.
“Gather up.” He said quietly, and everyone followed suit. Even if Hui Yue was the youngest in the group, he was clearly the one who had the final word and the others looked up to him with veneration.
“There might be someone after me.” Hui Yue said with a sigh, causing the worried expressions on the four faces to dramatically increase in intensity. A wry smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face, this was why he had not wished to tell them in the first place.
“The two of you might know them.” Hui Yue said while looking at the Rong twins smiling. “I believe they have been staying at the City Lord’s mansion. It is the seven men wearing black cloaks.”
Hearing this, Rong Xing’s eyes widened dramatically while Rong Ming frowned slightly. “I know about them.” Rong Xing said quietly. “They are here looking for an ultimate expert, at least that is what father told me.”
Hearing this caused a certain amount of relief to flood Hui Yue. Had they noticed Lan Feng, then they would probably not have allowed Hui Yue to wake up in such a calm manner.
“Did your father ever tell you about them?” Hui Yue asked curiously. He had previously heard that they were known as crusaders, yet he knew nothing else about them.
Rong Xing shook her head regrettably, “Father would not answer me when I asked, but I know they are here to find someone.”
Hui Yue nodded, although slightly disappointed he had already expected that Rong Liang would not mention important information to his children.
“Those black cloaked men were most likely looking for the expert which is hidden inside me,” Hui Yue explained with a sombre expression on his face, “you might be targeted if you stay together with me.”
Hearing this, although fear was evident, an expression of determination appeared on the various faces as they looked around nodding to one another.
“We are bros and bros will never betray each other!” Rong Ming said with a steady voice, and the rest solemnly nodded their heads. Hui Yue smiled as he explained what had happened earlier that morning.
The rest of the day, Hui Yue managed to hunt down another four Fanged Hogs along with a few wild kirins and a Vampyric Rabbit. Gao Yan managed to hunt down seven Fanged Hogs as he misunderstood and only went for that one kind of magical beasts.
Deng Wu caught no beasts as he had only followed Rong Xing around, yet the girl had been more annoyed than usual, and she completely ignored the suitor who tried everything possible to get her to even look at him.
Rong Xing had teamed up with Rong Ming, and together they caught the most beasts out of all of them. These twins did not go after the Fanged Hogs, instead they caught nine Vampyric Rabbits and even managed to catch two kirins alive.
Although the Rong twins already each owned a qilin, which they used for their travels, they had never subdued their own mounts before, and when they saw the low ranked kirins moving around, they took the chance to catch them alive.
As the two wild kirins sat in the same pen as their other mounts, Hui Yue and Gao Yan were slowly cutting out the beast cores from the multiple beasts they had slain that day.
Hui Yue was generally against slaying animals just for the sake of killing, yet the more he thought about it the more benefits he saw when he looked at these animal carcasses that were lying behind him. The first obvious benefit was the many beast cores which made Hui Yue smile happily.
Although these could be sold for money the money they could get would be limited; however all six of them would soon reach the middle dantian, and by doing so they would be given elemental affinities.
With elemental affinities came the ability to refine energy from these beast cores, and use them to craft items. Having these cores already could be beneficial to the team should Deng Wu break through into the Master rank within the next month like Lan Feng and Hui Yue were expecting him to.
The carcasses were given to the village; they salted some of the meat and
smoked the rest. This meat was enough to sustain the entire village throughout the year. Although Hui Yue had given them coins from the Ma Family, they still did not dare use too many of them, as they would attract attention bringing it to and from the markets.
Using the carcasses allowed the villagers to gain the raw materials they needed along with food, and it also increased the safety of the villagers. The defeated beasts were not of a high cultivation rank, but they were still high enough to be dangerous to most villagers, as they all had poor purity Qi and their cultivation base was fairly low. Every villager would be in danger if they ran into these magical beasts, which the group had killed throughout the day.
In the evening, Hui Yue suggested that the six of them go into the Magical Forest from the same area they had been hunting in and the next couple of days they went on daily visits to the forest.